Yes, it's noisy and unreliable but the Xbox 360 has a medium term release schedule that towers over the competition. Forget the Wii for a moment. If you want to play the best selection of cutting edge "traditional" videogames from now until Christmas - Halo 3, Mass Effect etc - then the 360 is the console to go for. Things will be different next year. The PS3 will finally have got going while the Wii could have made the Sony/Microsoft contest an irrelevant spat for second place. But for now the 360 is in a good place.
Microsoft have used this Friday's launch of the Xbox Elite - think normal 360 with 120GB hard drive, HDMI slot (for HD TVs) and black paint job - to cut prices. The Elite will cost £299.99 and is likely to appeal to hardcore 360 owners who are heavy users of the online Live Arcade service. The standard Xbox 360, which includes a 20GB hard drive, has been reduced by £30 to £249.99. The essentially pointless Core console - by the time you've bought another controller and something to save your games on you may as well have bought the standard model - is reduced by £20 to £179.99. Tempted by the price cut then?
